Propulsion and performance
It has to be assumed that the boats were paddled and there is room for up to nine
thwarts to give eighteen paddlers. Oars for rowing are not certainly known in
northern Europe until c.500BC although they existed in Ancient Egypt and the Mediterranean
earlier even than the Ferriby boats. Masts and sails cannot be proven to have
existed in the north before about 250BC although they are known in the south in
Bronze Age times. There ar